The opening match from the first ever WrestleDream show came on the “Zero Hour” pre show, in a huge eight-person mixed tag team match. It saw the mix-and-max teams of Shane Taylor, Lee Moriarty, Mercedes Martinez and Diamante taking on the legendary Satoshi Kojimi, and his teammates Ketih Lee, Athena and Billie Starkz.
The match started with the two heel women teaming up on Billie Starkz, but it soon turned into a free-for-all between the four women. Athena impressed (as she always does), with fan calls for the ROH Women’s Champion to be featured more on AEW Dynamite seem to get louder and louder with each passing week.
As the women and men were not allowed to wrestle each other, Athena was forced to tag in Keith Lee to take on Shane Taylor. Despite his recent issues with illness, the giant Keith Lee managed to hit both a Gorilla Press and a Hurricanrana, showing the Keith Lee that took fans breathe away in PWG and NXT.
Despite this, it was Satoshi Koijima who got the biggest pops of the match, for his “Machine Gun Chops” in the corner celebrated with a chorus of “Bread!” by the crowd.
The bout soon devolved into a scrappy affair that saw all the wrestlers running into the ring at the same time. After Athena hit her “O-Face” on Lee Moriarty, he took a huge spinebuster from Keith Lee, before Kojima hit him with his famous Lariat and pinned him for the victory. The Japanese legend honoring the great Antonio Inoki in victory.
The match was quite short, but it was a fun opener that got the crowd going, and gave the faces the chance to hit all their signature moves.